CAR

The delegation of the Central African Republic would like first of all to fulfil the task entrusted to it by His Excellency Mr. Ange-Félix Patassé, President of the Republic and head of State, of expressing the solidarity of the Central African Republic with the American people, as well as its resolute condemnation of the heinous acts committed against freedom, democracy and peace on 11 September. We will certainly make our contribution to the process of reflection that the international community will undertake together throughout this session to elaborate measures aimed at the eradication of terrorism. Before proceeding, I should like warmly to congratulate Mr. Han on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at this session, as well as the other members of the Bureau. His expertise in international affairs, together with his wisdom, will guarantee the success of our work, and the delegation of the Central African Republic would like to assure him of its cooperation. My delegation greatly appreciated the skilful way in which his predecessor conducted the work of the Millennium Assembly. We would also like to address, on behalf of the Central African Republic, our warmest congratulations to Mr. Kofi Annan on his re-election as Secretary- General. He has been honoured for his commitment to the cause of the Organization by the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is a tribute both to him and to the United Nations as a whole. He can continue to count upon the cooperation of the Central African Republic in the fulfilment of his extremely difficult 10 mission, in the wake of last year’s adoption by Member States of the Millennium Declaration, which establishes a new framework for cooperation between States. Indeed, the Millennium Declaration must be viewed as a strategy within which States should work so as to be able meet the many challenges facing the world today, which include poverty, conflict, intolerance, terrorism, debt, marginalization, endemic disease and HIV/AIDS. These growing challenges, the persistence of which leads to global imbalance, can be dealt with only through multilateral cooperation, above all in the framework of the United Nations. Such cooperation must first of all aim to eradicate the causes of certain frustrating problems in the world, by, for example, achieving a just and lasting settlement of the question of the Middle East. Likewise, my delegation urges the parties concerned to implement the provisions of the Lusaka Agreement so that the Democratic Republic of the Congo can regain its territorial integrity and unity and establish a lasting peace, which will be of benefit to the Central African Republic. Furthermore, States should cooperate in support of Africa, which is currently burdened by the weight of numerous challenges. The Millennium Summit rightly committed the international community to a campaign for development cooperation so as to make the right to development, like human rights, a reality for all. The Central African Republic, which endorsed the Millennium Declaration, urges the countries of the North to establish a true partnership with Africa, at both the public and private level, so as to support the developmental efforts of the continent. This will require a degree of political will, since, given the conflicts that are taking place today between, and often within, States, our partners sometimes give in to despair and indifference when confronted with slow progress, or occasionally allow themselves to be swayed by emotions incited by certain people who wish to discourage initiatives by abusively manipulating ideas that promote genocide and ethnic cleansing — phenomena that some countries have recently endured, but that can gain no foothold today in a country such as the Central African Republic. We often forget that the deep-seated sources of such conflicts are the lack of a culture of democracy in our societies and extreme poverty. That is why our partners should support our efforts to achieve democratization and contribute to consolidating the foundations of our young democracies, above all by paying priority attention to the economic aspect, which, unfortunately, is not always the case. In the case of the Central African Republic, for example, on 28 May last an attempted coup took place with the aim of ending the march of democracy in the country. That was the fourth such attempt in the five years since 1996. We would like briefly to shed some light on those events. At its 4261st meeting, on 23 January 2001, the Security Council considered the situation in the Central African Republic. While noting certain shortcomings, the Council recognized the efforts of the Government and asked it, along with representatives of all parts of society in the Central African Republic, to continue down the path towards the consolidation of democracy and the preservation of peace. To help in that task, the mandate of the United Nations Peace-building Support Office in the Central African Republic (BONUCA) has been extended because, with the assistance of others, it is doing remarkable and productive work. Despite everything, the Central African Republic is determined to continue resolutely to be a small haven of relative stability in a region torn apart by war, as one eminent personality put it recently. The social and political tension has, indeed, begun to diminish. Since May 2001, there has been an international presence. Contrary to all expectations, the same groups that have repeatedly subjected the people of the Central African Republic to acts of terrorism for five years committed an act whose foreseeable and tragic consequences are well known. When condemned by both the national and international community, those groups rushed to hide behind claims of genocidal practices in an attempt to justify the unjustifiable, thus creating ethnic division in various parts of the country. This recurrence of violent crises raises questions about justice in our young States, which are trying to establish the rule of law, but where amnesties are granted in lieu of justice, allowing impunity to prevail and thus encouraging recidivism. Fortunately, the world has spoken out in condemnation of the most recent coup attempt, and we 11 would like to take this opportunity, from this rostrum, to thank the United Nations, the European Union, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the Community of Sahel Saharan States, as well as brotherly and friendly countries, which responded immediately, calling for the re-establishment of constitutional legality. Any coup, be it failed or successful, always gives rise to actions to undermine freedom, human rights, the rights of society and national rights. The Central African Republic did not want to play that game. Thus, a number of appropriate measures have been taken, including the creation of a joint judicial inquiry commission; the establishment of contacts among the various social sectors and with the chancelleries, organizations and accredited institutions in the Central African Republic at the governmental and presidential levels; and diplomatic activity with the countries of the subregion and the region, which are being pursued. However, beyond the attempted coup of 28 May, the entire situation in the Central African Republic must be assessed as a whole. Just recently, having refused to present himself to the commission of judicial inquiry that had been established specifically to determine the consequences of the attempted coup of 28 May, the former army Chief of Staff organized resistance that threatened to turn into a rebellion and almost plunged the country into renewed tragedy. The rapid reaction of the Organization of African Unity, the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States and neighbouring brotherly countries has certainly helped to calm the situation for the moment. All these events, sorely trying to men of good will, have again highlighted the question of the march of democracy in the Central African Republic. That march has been made even more difficult by the nation’s extreme poverty and fragility, which, because of enormous financial hardships, is unable to cover the costs of sovereignty, creating a veritable breeding ground of instability. The attempted coup on 28 May exacerbated the country’s situation by plunging it into tragic destitution. This situation has been clearly grasped by the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which, on 2 August, reminded its member States, for their information and possible action, of the decision on the situation in the Central African Republic, adopted at the seventy-fourth ordinary session of the Council of Ministers in Lusaka, which “Appeals to Member States and the rest of the international community to provide the necessary economic and financial assistance for the reconstruction of the Central African Republic and in particular calls on the countries which have promised to provide funds at the Pledging Conference in favour of the Central African Republic in New York in May 2000 to honour their commitments.” (CM/Dec.602 (LXXIV), para. 4) The Central African Republic thanks the OAU for that decision. We also wish here to express our gratitude to the Security Council, which has always shown great interest in the situation in our country. We further wish to make special mention here of Gabon, France and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, as well as the friends of the Central African Republic represented here, for their firm involvement at the side of the Central African Republic. We hope that they will not despair over these repeated crises because, in spite of everything, we in the Central African Republic are truly determined to overcome our problems. We therefore hope that the United Nations will advocate even more energetically the cause of our country before the various international financial institutions with a view to securing greater assistance for us, because the repercussions of the series of events that began in 1996 will require significant financial resources to ensure the recovery of the country, the total collapse of which would have an impact throughout our subregion, if not beyond. We are called upon at this session to consider the manner in which States should implement the Millennium Declaration through their conduct. It is only through cooperation and solidarity that we can achieve this and thus ensure for the world the fulfilment of the objectives set out in the United Nations Charter. This cooperation should also allow us to find the necessary means of meeting the common challenge of terrorism, which is more apparent today than ever before.